Page:The Dialogues of Plato v. 1.djvu/561

 522 mean between ignorance and knowledge :— in this he resembles 204 I the philosopher who is also in a mean between the wise and the ignorant. Such is the nature of Love, who is not to be confused with the beloved.

But Love desires the beautiful ; and then arises the question, What does he desire of the beautiful .' He desires, of course, the possession of the beautiful ; — but what is given by that? For the beautiful let us substitute the good, and we have no difficulty in seeing the possession of the good to be happiness, and Love to be 205 the desire of happiness, although the meaning of the word has been too often confined to one kind of love. And Love desires not only the good, but the everlasting possession of the good. Why then is there all this flutter and excitement about love ? 206 Because all men and women at a certain age are desirous of bringing to the birth. And love is not of beauty only, but of birth in beauty ; this is the principle of immortality in a mortal creature. When beauty approaches, then the conceiving power is benign and diffuse ; when foulness, she is averted and morose. 207 But why again does this extend not only to men but also to animals ? Because they too have an instinct of immortality. Even in the same individual there is a perpetual succession as well of the parts of the material body as of the thoughts and desires of the mind ; nay, even knowledge comes and goes. There is no sameness of existence, but the new mortality is 208 always taking the place of the old. This is the reason why parents love their children — for the sake of immortality ; and this is why men love the immortality of fame. For the creative soul creates not children, but conceptions of wisdom and virtue, 209 such as poets and other creators have invented. And the noblest creations of all are those of legislators, in honour of whom temples have been raised. Who would not sooner have these children of the mind than the ordinary human ones?' I will now initiate you, she said, into the greater mysteries; 210 for he who would proceed in due course should love first one fair form, and then many, and learn the connexion of them ; and from beautifid bodies he should proceed to beautiful minds, and ' Cp. Bacon's Essays, 8 : — ' Certainly the best works and of greatest merit for the ptiblic have proceeded from the unmarried or childless men ; which both in affection and means have married and endowed the iiublic'