_Socr._ Consider, then, your friend’s speech, whether it is so or
otherwise; and you will find that it is in no respect different from the
epigram which some say is inscribed on the tomb of Midas the Phrygian.
_Phæ._ What is it, and what is there remarkable in it?
_Socr._ It is as follows;
“I am a maiden of brass and I lie on Midas’s sepulchre,
So long as water flows and tall trees flourish,
Remaining here on the tomb of Midas,
I will tell all passers by, that Midas is buried here.”
That it makes no difference which line is put first or last, you must
perceive, I think.
_Phæ._ You are jesting at our speech, Socrates.
107. _Socr._ That you may not be angry, then, we will have done with
this; (though it appears to me to contain very many examples, which any
one might examine with advantage, so long as he does not at all attempt
to imitate them;) and let us proceed to the two other speeches; for
there was something in them, I think, fit to be looked into by those who
wish to examine into the subject of speeches.
_Phæ._ What do you mean?
_Socr._ They were in a manner opposed to each other. For one said that
favour ought to be shewn to a person that is in love, the other to a
person that is not in love.
_Phæ._ And this, most strenuously.
_Socr._ I thought you were going to say, with truth, madly. However,
this is the very thing I was seeking for. For we said that love was a
kind of madness, did we not?
_Phæ._ Yes.
_Socr._ But there are two kinds of madness, one arising from human
diseases, the other from an inspired deviation from established customs.
_Phæ._ Certainly.
108. _Socr._ But dividing the divine mania of the four deities into four
parts, and assigning prophetic inspiration to Apollo, mystic to Bacchus,
poetic to the Muses, and the fourth to Venus and Love, we said that the
madness of Love is the best, and I know not how representing the passion
of love, probably lighting on some truth and perhaps carried off
elsewhere, we compounded a speech not altogether improbable, and sang a
kind of mythical hymn, in a seemly and devotional manner, in honour of
my lord and thine, Phædrus, Love, the guardian of beautiful boys.
_Phæ._ And one by no means unpleasant to me to hear.
_Socr._ Let us endeavour to find out, then, from the speech itself, how
it was able to pass from censure to praise.
_Phæ._ What mean you by this?
109. _Socr._ To me it appears that in all other respects we have really
been jesting; but as regards the two methods[131] that are seen in these
casually uttered speeches, if any one could apprehend their power by
art, it would be by no means an unwelcome circumstance.
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Footnote 131:
The two methods are “definition” and “division,” afterwards explained.
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_Phæ._ What methods are these?
_Socr._ The one is to see under one aspect and to bring together under
one general idea, many things scattered in various places, that, by
defining each, a person may make it clear what the subject is that he
wishes to discuss, as just now with respect to love, its nature being
defined, whether it was well or ill described; at all events for that
reason my speech was able to attain perspicuity and consistency.
_Phæ._ And what is the other method you speak of, Socrates?
110. _Socr._ The being able, on the other hand, to separate that general
idea into species, by joints, as nature points out, and not to attempt
to break any part, after the manner of an unskilful cook; but as, just
now, my two speeches comprehended mental derangement under one common
class. But as from one body there spring two sets of members bearing the
same name, one called the left the other the right, so my speeches
having considered mental derangement as naturally one class in us, then
the speech that had to divide the left part, did not leave off dividing
this again until having found in its members a kind of left-handed love,
it reviled it deservedly: but the other taking us to the right hand side
of madness, and having found a kind of love bearing the same name as the
former, but divine, brought it to light and commended it as the cause of
the greatest blessings to us.