s and nobility
taught and communicated orally for the sake of instruction and graven
in the soul, which is the true way of writing, is there clearness and
perfection and seriousness, and that such principles are a man's own and
his legitimate offspring;--being, in the first place, the word which
he finds in his own bosom; secondly, the brethren and descendants and
relations of his idea which have been duly implanted by him in the souls
of others;--and who cares for them and no others--this is the right sort
of man; and you and I, Phaedrus, would pray that we may become like him.

PHAEDRUS: That is most assuredly my desire and prayer.

SOCRATES: And now the play is played out; and of rhetoric enough. Go and
tell Lysias that to the fountain and school of the Nymphs we went
down, and were bidden by them to convey a message to him and to other
composers of speeches--to Homer and other writers of poems, whether set
to music or not; and to Solon and others who have composed writings in
the form of political discourses which they would term laws--to all of
them we are to say that if their compositions are based on knowledge of
the truth, and they can defend or prove them, when they are put to the
test, by spoken arguments, which leave their writings poor in
comparison of them, then they are to be called, not only poets, orators,
legislators, but are worthy of a higher name, befitting the serious
pursuit of their life.

PHAEDRUS: What name would you assign to them?

SOCRATES: Wise, I may not call them; for that is a great name which
belongs to God alone,--lovers of wisdom or philosophers is their modest
and befitting title.

PHAEDRUS: Very suitable.

SOCRATES: And he who cannot rise above his own compilations and
compositions, which he has been long patching and piecing, adding some
and taking away some, may be justly called poet or speech-maker or
law-maker.

PHAEDRUS: Certainly.

SOCRATES: Now go and tell this to your companion.

PHAEDRUS: But there is also a friend of yours who ought not to be
forgotten.

SOCRATES: Who is he?

PHAEDRUS: Isocrates the fair:--What message will you send to him, and
how shall we describe him?

SOCRATES: Isocrates is still young, Phaedrus; but I am willing to hazard
a prophecy concerning him.

PHAEDRUS: What would you prophesy?

SOCRATES: I think that he has a genius which soars above the orations of
Lysias, and that his character is cast in a finer mould. My impression
of him