On this page

• Text (1)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    human being , the tractable horse holds himself back , and restrains himself all he can from attempting any sensual enjoyment of the beloved object ; but the other , setting whip and rein at defiance , struggles on , and compels his companion and the driver to rush towards the desired object , and consent to unchaste intercourse . When they come into its presence , and the charioteer , beholding it , is reminded of the ideal beauty which he has formerly seen , and sees it with his mind ' s eye

    joined with Continence and Purity in the super-celestial region , he is struck dumb , and falling backward in adoration , draws back the reins so violently , that both horses are forced back upon their haunches , the one willingly and unresisting , the other with a great struggle . After many vain attempts , in which the vicious beast suffers great torture , he is at length subdued and humbled , and when he comes into the presence of the beloved object , is so overcome with fear as to be easily governed . 4

    The mmd of the lover being brought into this state , his constant attendance upon , and as it were worship of , the beloved object , in time inspires the latter with a corresponding affection : and the same stream of beauty and desire which has entered into the soul of the lover through his eyes , rebounds as from a wall when he' is full , and enters into the person from whom it at first proceeded , in whom it in like manner melts the induration about the roots of the wings , and enables

    them to sprout . Thus both partake of love ; and if , by orderly habits of life , and by philosophy , the better part of their nature retains the ascendency , they lead a happy and united life , retaining command over themselves , being in strict subjection so far as regards the vicious part of their souls , and in full freedom in respect of the virtuous part .

    And after their death , being light and winged , and having achieved one of the three great victories , they have accomplished the greatest good which either human wisdom or divine madness can confer upon a human creature . But if their mode of life is more rude , and they are attached to the pursuit of honour rather than of wisdom , perhaps in a moment of forgetful ness the incontinent horse of each of them , finding their

    souls unguarded , may bring them together , and cause them to accomplish what common persons celebrate as the summit of happiness . And this having been done , they subsequently persevere in the same intercourse , but sparingly , aa doing what is not approved by the whole of their minds . These persons , too , are dear to one another , although less so than those of whom we formerly spoke : and both while their love continues and when it has ceased , they consider themselves as having given and received the greatest of pledges , which it would be impious to violate by becoming alienated . When these persons die , they quit the body , without wings indeed , but having them in an incipient state , and they have therefore no trifling reward for their love ; for those who

    have once commenced the journey towards heaven cannot again descend into the subterranean darkness , but live happily together in the clear light , and when they recover their wings , recover them together . * Such is the attachment of a lover . But that of a person who is not a lover , being a mere compound of mortal prudence , is sparing and no more than mortal in what it dispenses : it produces in M \ e soul of the person who is the object of attachment , nothing but illiberalky , * ? AnXtuSiiU .

    Untitled Article

    418 Plato ' 9 Dialogue * ; the Phadrus .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1834, page 418, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2634/page/36/