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I will now initiate you, she said, into the greater mysteries; 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 beautiful bodies he should
proceed to beautiful minds, and the beauty of laws and institutions, until
he perceives that all beauty is of one kindred; and from institutions he
should go on to the sciences, until at last the vision is revealed to him
of a single science of universal beauty, and then he will behold the
everlasting nature which is the cause of all, and will be near the end. In
the contemplation of that supreme being of love he will be purified of
earthly leaven, and will behold beauty, not with the bodily eye, but with
the eye of the mind, and will bring forth true creations of virtue and
wisdom, and be the friend of God and heir of immortality.
Such, Phaedrus, is the tale which I heard from the stranger of Mantinea,
and which you may call the encomium of love, or what you please.
The company applaud the speech of Socrates, and Aristophanes is about to
say something, when suddenly a band of revellers breaks into the court, and
the voice of Alcibiades is heard asking for Agathon.
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