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therefore, the ill-repute into which these attachments have fallen is to be
ascribed to the evil condition of those who make them to be ill-reputed; that is
to say, to the self- seeking of the governors and the cowardice of the
governed; on the other hand, the indiscriminate honour which is given to them
in some countries is attributable to the laziness of those who hold this opinion
of them. In our own country a far better principle prevails, but, as I was
saying, the explanation of it is rather perplexing. For, observe that open loves
are held to be more honourable than secret ones, and that the love of the
noblest and highest, even if their persons are less beautiful than others, is
especially honourable. Consider, too, how great is the encouragement which
all the world gives to the lover; neither is he supposed to be doing anything
dishonourable; but if he succeeds he is praised, and if he fail he is blamed.
And in the pursuit of his love the custom of mankind allows him to do many
strange things, which philosophy would bitterly censure if they were done
from any motive of interest, or wish for office or power. He may pray, and
entreat, and supplicate, and swear, and lie on a mat at the door, and endure a
slavery worse than that of any slave—in any other case friends and enemies
would be equally ready to prevent him, but now there is no friend who will be
ashamed of him and admonish him, and no enemy will charge him with
meanness or flattery; the actions of a lover have a grace which ennobles them;
and custom has decided that they are highly commendable and that there no
loss of character in them; and, what is strangest of all, he only may swear and
forswear himself (so men say), and the gods will forgive his transgression, for
there is no such thing as a lover’s oath. Such is the entire liberty which gods
and men have allowed the lover, according to the custom which prevails in
our part of the world. From this point of view a man fairly argues that in
Athens to love and to be loved is held to be a very honourable thing. But
when parents forbid their sons to talk with their lovers, and place them under
a tutor’s care, who is appointed to see to these things, and their companions
and equals cast in their teeth anything of the sort which they may observe, and
their elders refuse to silence the reprovers and do not rebuke them—any one
who reflects on all this will, on the contrary, think that we hold these practices
to be most disgraceful. But, as I was saying at first, the truth as I imagine is,
that whether such practices are honourable or whether they are dishonourable
is not a simple question; they are honourable to him who follows them
honourably, dishonourable to him who follows them dishonourably. There is
dishonour in yielding to the evil, or in an evil manner; but there is honour in
yielding to the good, or in an honourable manner. Evil is the vulgar lover who
loves the body rather than the soul, inasmuch as he is not even stable, because
he loves a thing which is in itself unstable, and therefore when the bloom of
youth which he was desiring is over, he takes wing and flies away, in spite of
all his words and promises; whereas the love of the noble disposition is life-
557
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Buch The Complete Plato"
The Complete Plato
- Titel
- The Complete Plato
- Autor
- Plato
- Datum
- ~347 B.C.
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- PD
- Abmessungen
- 21.0 x 29.7 cm
- Seiten
- 1612
- Schlagwörter
- Philosophy, Antique, Philosophie, Antike, Dialogues, Metaphysik, Metaphysics, Ideologie, Ideology, Englisch
- Kategorien
- Geisteswissenschaften
- International