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rate you will be thought the most courageous of men in the estimation of posterity. Dear companions, if this our divine assembly can only be established, to them we will hand over the city; none of the present company of legislators, as I may call them, would hesitate about that. And the state will be perfected and become a waking reality, which a little while ago we attempted to create as a dream and in idea only, mingling together reason and mind in one image, in the hope that our citizens might be duly mingled and rightly educated; and being educated, and dwelling in the citadel of the land, might become perfect guardians, such as we have never seen in all our previous life, by reason of the saving virtue which is in them.

MEGILLUS: Dear Cleinias, after all that has been said, either we must detain the Stranger, and by supplications and in all manner of ways make him share in the foundation of the city, or we must give up the undertaking.

CLEINIAS: Very true, Megillus; and you must join with me in detaining him.

MEGILLUS: I will.

________

The End

Lysis, or; Friendship

By Plato

Translated by Benjamin Jowett

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Plato Biography

PERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE: Socrates, who is the narrator, Menexenus,Hippothales, Lysis, Ctesippus.

SCENE: A newly-erected Palaestra outside the walls of Athens.

I was going from the Academy straight to the Lyceum, intending to take theouter road, which is close under the wall. When I came to the postern gateof the city, which is by the fountain of Panops, I fell in withHippothales, the son of Hieronymus, and Ctesippus the Paeanian, and acompany of young men who were standing with them. Hippothales, seeing meapproach, asked whence I came and whither I was going.

I am going, I replied, from the Academy straight to the Lyceum.

Then come straight to us, he said, and put in here; you may as well.

Who are you, I said; and where am I to come?

He showed me an enclosed space and an open door over against the wall. Andthere, he said, is the building at which we all meet: and a goodly companywe are.

And what is this building, I asked; and what sort of entertainment haveyou?

The building, he replied, is a newly erected Palaestra; and theentertainment is generally conversation, to which you are welcome.

Thank you, I said; and is there any teacher there?

Yes, he said, your old friend and admirer, Miccus.

Indeed, I replied; he is a very eminent professor.

Are you disposed, he said, to go with me and see them?

Yes, I said; but I should like to know first, what is expected of me, andwho is the favourite among you?

Some persons have one favourite, Socrates, and some another, he said.

And who is yours? I asked: tell me that, Hippothales.

At this he blushed; and I said to him, O Hippothales, thou son ofHieronymus! do not say that you are, or that you are not, in love; theconfession is too late; for I see that you are not only in love, but arealready far gone in your love. Simple and foolish as I am, the Gods havegiven me the power of understanding affections of this kind.

Whereupon he blushed more and more.

Ctesippus said: I like to see you blushing, Hippothales, and hesitating totell Socrates the name; when, if he were with you but for a very shorttime, you would have plagued him to death by talking about nothing else. Indeed, Socrates, he has literally deafened us, and stopped our ears withthe praises of Lysis; and if he is a little intoxicated, there is everylikelihood that we may have our sleep murdered with a cry of Lysis. Hisperformances in prose are bad enough, but nothing at all in comparison withhis verse; and when he drenches us with his poems and other compositions,it is really too bad; and worse still is his manner of singing them to hislove; he has a voice which is truly appalling, and we cannot help hearinghim: and now having a question put to him by you, behold he is blushing.

Who is Lysis? I said: I suppose that he must be young; for the name doesnot recall any one to me.

Why, he said, his father being a very well-known man,