irst trace of the distinction
between necessary and contingent matter; (6) The conception of the soul
itself as the motive power and reason of the universe.

The conception of the philosopher, or the philosopher and lover in one,
as a sort of madman, may be compared with the Republic and Theaetetus,
in both of which the philosopher is regarded as a stranger and monster
upon the earth. The whole myth, like the other myths of Plato, describes
in a figure things which are beyond the range of human faculties, or
inaccessible to the knowledge of the age. That philosophy should be
represented as the inspiration of love is a conception that has already
become familiar to us in the Symposium, and is the expression partly of
Plato's enthusiasm for the idea, and is also an indication of the real
power exercised by the passion of friendship over the mind of the Greek.
The master in the art of love knew that there was a mystery in these
feelings and their associations, and especially in the contrast of
the sensible and permanent which is afforded by them; and he sought
to explain this, as he explained universal ideas, by a reference to a
former state of existence. The capriciousness of love is also derived
by him from an attachment to some god in a former world. The singular
remark that the beloved is more affected than the lover at the final
consummation of their love, seems likewise to hint at a psychological
truth.

It is difficult to exhaust the meanings of a work like the Phaedrus,
which indicates so much more than it expresses; and is full of
inconsistencies and ambiguities which were not perceived by Plato
himself. For example, when he is speaking of the soul does he mean the
human or the divine soul? and are they both equally self-moving and
constructed on the same threefold principle? We should certainly be
disposed to reply that the self-motive is to be attributed to God only;
and on the other hand that the appetitive and passionate elements have
no place in His nature. So we should infer from the reason of the thing,
but there is no indication in Plato's own writings that this was his
meaning. Or, again, when he explains the different characters of men
by referring them back to the nature of the God whom they served in a
former state of existence, we are inclined to ask whether he is serious:
Is he not rather using a mythological figure, here as elsewhere, to draw
a veil over things which are beyond the limits of mortal