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    would give confidence ( Q an enemy , fear * nd anxiety to a friend , and to the lover himself . * Every one , but a lover especially , mus £ see , th « t he would wish the person he loves to be destitute of all which is most dear , most affectionate , and most divine : to be deprived of father , mother , relations , and

    friends , lest they should censure aiu ) obstruct the intercourse with him ; to be destitute of property , those who possess it being neither so easily obtained , nor , when obtained , so easily managed : to be unmarried , childless , sind to remain for as long a period as possible undomesticated and without a * home , in order to remain as long as possible subservient to his pleasures Again ; there are many other things which are in themselves bad a but in most of them there is an admixture of immediate

    pleasure : A flatterer is a most dangerous and mischievous animal , but nature has mixed up in him , a pleasure not entirely illiberal ; a courtezan , and many other of the most pernicious things , are in daily intercourse the most pleasant ; . but a lover is not only pernicious , but the most unpleasant of all things in daily intercourse . For it is an old saying , that

    j > ersons of the same age like one another : equality of age , producing similarity of tastes , causes friendship , by reason of resemblance : but even of their intimacy , there is such a thing as satiety ; and moreover , in every thing , and to 2 * 11 persons , what they cannot get rid of , be-. comes a burthen . Now , both these are inconveniences which are

    suffered above all from a lover ; who is likely to be much superior in age to the object of his love , $ nd , hurried by an irresistible impulse , is so assidupus in running after and engrossing the person whom he loves , that he can in no way be got rid of . ' And not only is he thus disagreeable and detrimental while he loves , but unfaithful when he has ceased to love . He was only endured in the

    first instance , on account of his many promises and vows of future benefits . When , however , these are to be fulfilled , he is changed , and has recovered his reason . The person \ yhom he loves , not knowing this , reminds him of his past words and deeds ; he is ashamed to say that he hc ^ s changed , and knows not how , when in his senses , to perform the promises which he made and Bwore tQ when in a state or temporary

    madness , lest , acting as he did befoie , he should again be what he then was . \\ e therefore flies off from his promises , and from the society of the person whojn he formerly loved ; who has then the ungrateful task of pursuing , and resenting ; having been unfortunately ignorant that the attachment of a lover is not a feeling of good will , but an appetite which seeks merely its own gratification ,, and that the love of a lover is like that of the wolf to the lamb /

    Here Socrates breaks off his , discourse : and Phaedrus tells him , that as yet he has only done half what he had undertaken ; he has only censured the lover , and npt pointed out the gogd which arises from an iiUirnacy with one who is , not a lover ; why therefore does he stop ? Socrates jocularly answers ,, * Did you flQt perceive that I had alreadygot beyond dithyra ^ mbica , an , 4 into heroics , ant ) that too , when vituperating / ( for which purpose the poets generally employed the dithyrambic measure , ) * Wh ^ t do you suppose would happen if I were to commence a panegyric ? I sh , Qulq be in £ state of absolute enthusiasm ; completely inspired b y &Q uympto of the . pl ace , to whose influence you have pre-Qiedimedly expwed me , \ will Us satisfied with eayiag in we word ,

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    Plate ' * WafafuG ; ihe Phvdrus 4 U

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1834, page 411, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2634/page/29/