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[242a] as it may; I shall cross this stream and go away before you put some further compulsion upon me.

Phaedrus
Not yet, Socrates, till the heat is past. Don't you see that it is already almost noon? Let us stay and talk over what has been said, and then, when it is cooler, we will go away.

Socrates
Phaedrus, you are simply a superhuman wonder as regards discourses! I believe [242b] no one of all those who have been born in your lifetime has produced more discourses than you, either by speaking them yourself or compelling others to do so. I except Simmias the Theban; but you are far ahead of all the rest. And now I think you have become the cause of another, spoken by me.

Phaedrus
That is not exactly a declaration of war! But how is this, and what is the discourse?

Socrates
My good friend, when I was about to cross the stream, the spirit and the sign [242c] that usually comes to me came—it always holds me back from something I am about to do—and I thought I heard a voice from it which forbade my going away before clearing my conscience, as if I had committed some sin against deity. Now I am a seer, not a very good one, but, as the bad writers say, good enough for my own purposes; so now I understand my error. How prophetic the soul is, my friend! For all along, while I was speaking my discourse, something troubled me, and as Ibycus says, [242d] “I was distressed lest I be buying honor among men by sinning against the gods.” Ibycus Frag. 24, Bergk.But now I have seen my error.

Phaedrus
What do you mean?

Socrates
Phaedrus, a dreadful speech it was, a dreadful speech, the one you brought with you, and the one you made me speak.

Phaedrus
How so?

Socrates
It was foolish, and somewhat impious. What could be more dreadful than that?

Phaedrus
Nothing, if you are right about it.

Socrates
Well, do you not believe that Love is the son of Aphrodite and is a god?

Phaedrus
So it is said.

Socrates
Yes, but not by Lysias, nor by your speech [242e] which was spoken by you through my mouth that you bewitched. If Love is, as indeed he is, a god or something divine, he can be nothing evil; but the two speeches just now said that he was evil. So then they sinned against Love; but their foolishness was really very funny besides, for while they were saying nothing sound or true,


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