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long, for it becomes one with the everlasting. The custom of our country
would have both of them proven well and truly, and would have us yield to
the one sort of lover and avoid the other, and therefore encourages some to
pursue, and others to fly; testing both the lover and beloved in contests and
trials, until they show to which of the two classes they respectively belong.
And this is the reason why, in the first place, a hasty attachment is held to be
dishonourable, because time is the true test of this as of most other things; and
secondly there is a dishonour in being overcome by the love of money, or of
wealth, or of political power, whether a man is frightened into surrender by
the loss of them, or, having experienced the benefits of money and political
corruption, is unable to rise above the seductions of them. For none of these
things are of a permanent or lasting nature; not to mention that no generous
friendship ever sprang from them. There remains, then, only one way of
honourable attachment which custom allows in the beloved, and this is the
way of virtue; for as we admitted that any service which the lover does to him
is not to be accounted flattery or a dishonour to himself, so the beloved has
one way only of voluntary service which is not dishonourable, and this is
virtuous service.
For we have a custom, and according to our custom any one who does
service to another under the idea that he will be improved by him either in
wisdom, or in some other particular of virtue—such a voluntary service, I say,
is not to be regarded as a dishonour, and is not open to the charge of flattery.
And these two customs, one the love of youth, and the other the practice of
philosophy and virtue in general, ought to meet in one, and then the beloved
may honourably indulge the lover. For when the lover and beloved come
together, having each of them a law, and the lover thinks that he is right in
doing any service which he can to his gracious loving one; and the other that
he is right in showing any kindness which he can to him who is making him
wise and good; the one capable of communicating wisdom and virtue, the
other seeking to acquire them with a view to education and wisdom, when the
two laws of love are fulfilled and meet in one—then, and then only, may the
beloved yield with honour to the lover. Nor when love is of this disinterested
sort is there any disgrace in being deceived, but in every other case there is
equal disgrace in being or not being deceived. For he who is gracious to his
lover under the impression that he is rich, and is disappointed of his gains
because he turns out to be poor, is disgraced all the same: for he has done his
best to show that he would give himself up to any one’s ‘uses base’ for the
sake of money; but this is not honourable. And on the same principle he who
gives himself to a lover because he is a good man, and in the hope that he will
be improved by his company, shows himself to be virtuous, even though the
object of his affection turn out to be a villain, and to have no virtue; and if he
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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