y.

But of beauty, I repeat again that we saw her there shining in company
with the celestial forms; and coming to earth we find her here too,
shining in clearness through the clearest aperture of sense. For sight
is the most piercing of our bodily senses; though not by that is wisdom
seen; her loveliness would have been transporting if there had been
a visible image of her, and the other ideas, if they had visible
counterparts, would be equally lovely. But this is the privilege of
beauty, that being the loveliest she is also the most palpable to sight.
Now he who is not newly initiated or who has become corrupted, does not
easily rise out of this world to the sight of true beauty in the other;
he looks only at her earthly namesake, and instead of being awed at the
sight of her, he is given over to pleasure, and like a brutish beast he
rushes on to enjoy and beget; he consorts with wantonness, and is not
afraid or ashamed of pursuing pleasure in violation of nature. But
he whose initiation is recent, and who has been the spectator of many
glories in the other world, is amazed when he sees any one having a
godlike face or form, which is the expression of divine beauty; and at
first a shudder runs through him, and again the old awe steals over him;
then looking upon the face of his beloved as of a god he reverences him,
and if he were not afraid of being thought a downright madman, he would
sacrifice to his beloved as to the image of a god; then while he gazes
on him there is a sort of reaction, and the shudder passes into an
unusual heat and perspiration; for, as he receives the effluence of
beauty through the eyes, the wing moistens and he warms. And as he
warms, the parts out of which the wing grew, and which had been hitherto
closed and rigid, and had prevented the wing from shooting forth, are
melted, and as nourishment streams upon him, the lower end of the wing
begins to swell and grow from the root upwards; and the growth extends
under the whole soul--for once the whole was winged. During this process
the whole soul is all in a state of ebullition and effervescence,--which
may be compared to the irritation and uneasiness in the gums at the
time of cutting teeth,--bubbles up, and has a feeling of uneasiness and
tickling; but when in like manner the soul is beginning to grow wings,
the beauty of the beloved meets her eye and she receives the sensible
warm motion of particles which flow towards her, therefore called