Pol.). And if we are not obedient to the gods, there is a
danger that we shall be split up again and go about in basso-relievo, like
the profile figures having only half a nose which are sculptured on
monuments, and that we shall be like tallies. Wherefore let us exhort all
men to piety, that we may avoid evil, and obtain the good, of which Love is
to us the lord and minister; and let no one oppose him--he is the enemy of
the gods who opposes him. For if we are friends of the God and at peace
with him we shall find our own true loves, which rarely happens in this
world at present. I am serious, and therefore I must beg Eryximachus not
to make fun or to find any allusion in what I am saying to Pausanias and
Agathon, who, as I suspect, are both of the manly nature, and belong to the
class which I have been describing. But my words have a wider application
--they include men and women everywhere; and I believe that if our loves
were perfectly accomplished, and each one returning to his primeval nature
had his original true love, then our race would be happy.
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