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greatest perfection , the art of discourse , whether his end in discoursing be to instruct , or only to persuade . ' And vre can now answer the other question , whether to he a writer of discourses is a reproach . If either Lysias , or any other man , composes a written discourse on political affairs , and fancies that there is much of clearness and solidity in it , this is a reproach to the writer , no doubt ; for , not to know what is valuable and what is otherwise , in
respect to justice and injustice , good and evil , is a reproach , even though the crowd should be unanimous in their applause of it . But a person who thinks that what is said upon any subject in a written treatise can be no better than sport , and that nothing worthy of very serious attention was ever written or delivered in a speech , and that the best of them are nothing more than memoranda to remind those who already know ,
and that there is nothing satisfactory or complete , or worthy to be seriously considered , but in the discourses which are really taught and learnt and written in the mind ; and that such discourses are the legitimate offspring of ourselves , first the one which is in our own minds , ( if we have found one , and planted it there , ) and next those brothers or children of it , which have sprung up at the same time in other minds of other persons ; this is such a person as you , Phaedrus , and I , should wish to be . ' Phsedrus assented .
• Do you , then , tell Lysias , that we two came down here , to the fountain of the nymphs , and that the nymphs bid us tell him and all other speech writers , Homer and all other poets , Solon and all others who write what they call laws , that if they composed these writings knowing what the truth is , and being able to maintain a discussion on the matters
of which they wrote , and to make , by what they speak , what they have written appear insignificant , they ought not to be named from this lighter pursuit , but from their more serious occupation / ' What name would you give them V 4 Wise appears to me too assuming a name , and fit only for a God ; but Seeker of TVisdonC ( $ CkoaotyoQy whence the modern word " philosopher'' ) 4 would be a more suitable and decorous 4
appellation . ' c Agreed . ' He , on the other hand , who has not in himself anything of a higher and more perfect kind than what he puts down in writing , he may be justly called a poet , or a speech-writer , or a law-writer . ' ' Allowed . ' ' Then tell this to your friend / They here end their discourse ; but before they quit the spot , Socrates suggests the propriety of addressing a prayer to the deities of the place . His prayer is as follows : — O Pan , and whatever other gods preside
over this spot , grant to me to be beautiful inwardly ; and let my outside , whatever it is , be suitable to what I have within . The rich man , in my estimation , is the man who is wise ; but of gold , let me have so much as can be sufficient to no one save the prudent and temperate . 4 there anything else which we are in want of , Pluedrus ? My wants have been tolerably well cared for in this prayer . ' 4 Offer up the same prayer for me : friends have all their affairs in common / 4 Let us depart . '
It will have been remarked that Socrates himself treats the whole of this conversation as of no serious moment , ( sport , as he terms it , ) except the concluding discussion ; the object of which is one that is incessantl y aimed at in the writing * of Plato . This is , in the first place ,
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Plato ' s Dialogues ; the Phccdrus . 648
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1834, page 643, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2637/page/39/
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