Symposium.
Socrates.
Diotima's conversation 7vitli Socrates. 575 Love. The error in your conception of him was very natural, and as I imagine from what you say, has arisen out of a con- fusion of love and the beloved, which made you think that love was all beautiful. For the beloved is the truly beautiful, and delicate, and perfect, and blessed ; but the principle of love is of another nature, and is such as I have described.' I said : ' O thou stranger woman, thou sayest well ; but, assuming Love to be such as you say, what is the use of him to men ? ' ' That, Socrates,' she replied, ' I will attempt to unfold : of his nature and birth I have already spoken ; and you acknowledge that love is of the beautiful. But some one will say: Of the beautiful in what, Socrates and Diotima? — or rather let me put the question more clearly, and ask : When a man loves the beautiful, what does he desire ? ' 1 answered her 'That the beautiful maybe his.' 'Still,' she said, ' the answer suggests a further question : What is given by the possession of beauty? ' 'To what you have asked,' I replied, ' I have no answer ready.' ' Then,' she said, ' let me put the word "good" in the place of the beautiful, and repeat the question once more : If he who loves loves the good, what is it then that he loves ? ' ' The possession of the good,' I said. 'And what does he gain who possesses the good ? ' ' Happiness,' I replied ; ' there is less difficulty in 205 answering that question.' 'Yes,' she said, 'the happy are made happy by the acquisition of good things. Nor is there any need to ask why a man desires happiness ; the answer is already final.' 'You are right,' I said. 'And is this wish and this desire common to all ? and do all men always desire their own good, or only some men ? — what say you ? ' ' All men,' I replied ; ' the desire is common to all.' ' Why, then,' she rejoined, 'are not all men, Socrates, said to love, but only some of them ? whereas you say that all men are always loving the same things.' 'I myself wonder,' I said, 'why this is.' 'There is nothing to wonder at,' she replied; 'the reason is that one part of love is separated off and receives the name of the whole, but the other parts have other names.' ' Give an illustration,' I said. She answered me as follows : ' There is poetry, which, as you know, is complex and mani- fold. All creation or passage of non-being into being is poetry or making, and the processes of all art are creative ; Sym- posium. SOCRATF.S. Love is of the beauti- ful, but in what ? Of the pos- session of the beauti- ful, which is also the possession of the good, which is happiness. Yet love is not com- monly used in this ge- neral sense.
