2. The musician can rise to the rank of the lover, and either remain
there, or rise still higher. But the lover has some reminiscence of the
beautiful; but as here below he is separated (from it, he is incapable
of clearly knowing what it is). Charmed with the beautiful objects
that meet his views, he falls into an ecstasy. He must therefore be
taught not to content himself with thus admiring a single body, but,
by reason, to embrace all bodies that reveal beauty; showing him what
is identical in all, informing him that it is something alien to the
bodies, which comes from elsewhere, and which exists even in a higher
degree in the objects of another nature; citing, as examples, noble
occupations, and beautiful laws. He will be shown that beauty is found
in the arts, the sciences, the virtues, all of which are suitable means
of familiarizing the lover with the taste of incorporeal things. He
will then be made to see that beauty is one, and he will be shown the
element which, in every object, constitutes beauty. From virtues he
will be led to progress to intelligence and essence, while from there
he will have nothing else to do but to progress towards the supreme
goal.