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    best , when it is the superior in strength , receives the name of Prudence : * Desire , which drags us irrationally to pleasure , when it governs us , is called Incontinence , f Incontinence , again , has many names , for there are many species of it ; and whichsoever of these pyedomj , aateg , gives its own name , and that an opprobrious one , tp the person whom it rules . If the desire of the pleasures of the palate predominates

    over reason , and over the other desires , it la called gluttony , and the person who is affected by it is termed a glutton : if the desire of ipto xi cat ion similarly preponderates , we know what name it receives . We now see , what that desire i * , respecting- which we are inquiring . The desire which ( being independent of reason , and being victorious over right judgment ) tends towards the pleasure of beauty , is called love . '

    Here Socrates interrupts himself , and jocularly pretends to be inspired by the deities of t ? ie spot ; ' what I am now speaking / says he , * is not far rernove 4 from dithyrambics . * ' We have now , ' continues } ie , settled what the thing is , about which we are speaking ; and keeping this jji view , we can inquire what benefit or hurt arises respectively from a lover , an 4 frarn one who is not a Ipver , to the person who complies with their desires , Now , he who is governed

    by desire , and the Blave of pleasure , must Qf necessity attempt to make the object of his love a source of as much pleasure to him as possible . But , to a person who is in an unsound state , that is pleasant which opposes to him no resistance ; that which is his eqqai or his superior , is disagreeable to him . A lover , therefore , cannot endure that the object of his passion should be either superior or equal to him : he will strive all he can to make it inferior and feebler . Now , the ignarajnt are feebler

    than the wise ; the cowardly , than the brave ; he who is unable , to speak , than an orator ; a slow person , thaji a ready one . A lover , therefore , must of necessity rejoice that the object of bis love should labour under theie disadvantages , and must do all he can to superinduce them if they do not already exist , or else he will be deprived of what gives him immediate pleasure . He must of necessity be jealous ; and the object of his love will suffer great evil from him , by being withheld

    from much useful intercourse ; and above all , from that which produces the greatest wisdom—philosophy , From this , a lover must above all things withhold the person whom he loves , lest , in consequence of it , he himself should be despised ; and must endeavour all he can to make that person be ignorant of every thing , and by depending for every thing upon the lover , be a source of the greatest amount of pleasure to him , and of evil to the beloved object itself . 1

    If a man who is in love , is so ill a , superintendent and associate in the affair * of the mind , be is not less so in what concern * the body . He who prefers the p leasant to the good , will prefer a habit of body soft aiul relaxed , bred up , not in t \\ e clear f unshinQ , hut in the shade , unused to labour and hardy exereisg , accustomed only to delicate and effeminate living ; such a state of body , in short , at it * all great exigencies

    * This seems to be here the most appropriate translation of the word f «^ W *« . fito « the observations on this word , in the Notes on the ' Protagoras / ( Monthly jRtpo $ i ( ory for Maroh ) > t This word , if used in its widest sense , appears to correspond with what is here meant by # / W ( protcrvitat . )

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    410 PM& * Btink&m i tte * h * 4 r * % .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1834, page 410, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2634/page/28/