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    most instructive portion of it , ) appears perfectly serious and in earnest , while in the remainder there is an appearance of sportiveness , and some * times almost of mockery . The dramatic merits of the Phaedrus are very great . It may be pronounced a model of lively and familiar conversation between two intimate acquaintances , Athenian gentlemen in the best sense of the term * accomplished up to the highest standard of their age .

    The dialogue derives an additional interest , from its containing , in the form of an allegory , those doctrines , or rather ideas , on the subject of love , which , by giving rise to the vulgar expression Platonic love , * have made the name of Plato familiar to the ear of thousands , who otherwise might probably never have heard of his existence .

    Socrates meets his friend Phsedrus , coming from a visit to Lysias , the celebrated orator , and going out to walk . He asks Phaedrus , what was the subject of discourse between him and Lysias ; and Phsedrus promises to give him an account of it if he will accompany him in his walk .

    Socrates having complied , Phsedrus tells him that Lysias had read to the company a written discourse on the subject of love , weipwftevov two , tCjv Kaktvv ^ ovjL vvb kpatnov B £ > i . e . a letter , or speech , ( whichever we choose to call it , ) containing a proposal , of a nature which would commonly be called an amatory one , but without professing to be in love * This last circumstance , continues Phsedrus , is the cream of the

    matter ; for he maintains , that one who is not in love ought to be preferred , as to the matter in question , to one who is . He is a fine fellow , said Socrates : I wish he would maintain that a poor man should be preferred to a rich man , an old man to a young , and so on , going through all the qualities which I and most others possess : his discourse would then be of great public utility . He then presses Phaedrus very earnestly to relate . the discourse : Phsedrua pretends want of memory , and coquets a little , whereupon Socrates rallies him , and says , that he knows he is dying to relate it , and sooner than lose the opportunity would end by

    compelling him to listen . Phsedrus was preparing accordingly to give an account of the discourse , when Socrates asks him to let him see what he has got under his cloak ; which turns out to be the very discourse itself . When the mirth and p leasantry excited by this discovery have subsided , they agree to read the manuscript together , as soon as they can find a convenient place for sitting down .

    Ab they are walking along the banks of the Ilissus in quest of such a spot , Phsedrus asks Socrates whether this is the place from which Boreas is said to have carried off O re i thy a . No , replied Socrates , it is a little lower down . Do you believe this story , asked Phaedrus , to be true ? It would be nothing extraordinary , said Socrates , if , like the wise men , I disbelieved it . I might then say , that the north wind blew this girl over the adjoining rocks while she was diverting herself in the meadows ,

    and that for this reason she was said to have been carried off by Boreas . According to my notion , however , all these things are very entertaining , but they would make life exceedingly laborious and troublesome : for one would next have to explain the Centaurs , and then the Chimeera , and a whole crowd of Gorgons and Pegasuses ; which if one were to disbelieve , and attempt to bring back to probability , U would be the business of a life . I have not leisure lor these

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    Plato ' s Dialogues ; the Phadrus . 40 fr

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1834, page 405, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2634/page/23/