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Phaedrtis. and hence he is full of admiration for the beauties of nature, which Analysis, he seems to be drinking in for the first time. As they are on their way, Phaedrus asks the opinion of Socrates respecting the local tradition of Boreas and Oreithyia. Socrates, after a satirical allusion to the ' rationalizers ' of his day, replies that he has no time for these 'nice ' interpretations of mythology, and he pities any one who has. When you once begin there is no end of them, and they spring from an uncritical philosophy after all. ' The proper study of mankind is man ; ' and he is a far more complex and wonderful being than the serpent Typho. Socrates 230 as yet does not know himself; and why should he care to know about unearthly monsters ? Engaged in such conversation, they arrive at the plane-tree ; when they have found a convenient resting-place, Phaedrus pulls out the speech and reads : — ■ The speech consists of a foolish paradox which is to the effect that the non-lover ought to be accepted rather than the lover — 231 because he is more rational, more agreeable, more enduring, less suspicious, less hurtful, less boastful, less engrossing, and because there are more of them, and for a great many other reasons which are equally unmeaning. Phaedrus is captivated with the beauty of the periods, and wants to make Socrates say that nothing was or ever could be written better. Socrates does not think much of 235 the matter, but then he has only attended to the form, and in that he has detected several repetitions and other marks of haste. He cannot agree with Phaedrus in the extreme value which he sets upon this performance, because he is afraid of doing injustice to Anacreon and Sappho and other great writers, and is almost inclined to think that he himself, or rather some power residing within him, could make a speech better than that of Lysias on the same theme, and also different from his, if he may be allowed the 236 use of a few commonplaces which all speakers must equally employ. Phaedrus is delighted at the prospect of having another speech, and promises that he will set up a golden statue of Socrates at Delphi, if he keeps his word. Some raillery ensues, and at length Socrates, conquered by the threat that he shall never again hear a speech of Lysias unless he fulfils his promise, veils his face 237 and begins. First, invoking the Muses and assumingironically the person of