not reached the plane-tree
to which you were conducting us?

PHAEDRUS: Yes, this is the tree.

SOCRATES: By Here, a fair resting-place, full of summer sounds and
scents. Here is this lofty and spreading plane-tree, and the agnus
castus high and clustering, in the fullest blossom and the greatest
fragrance; and the stream which flows beneath the plane-tree is
deliciously cold to the feet. Judging from the ornaments and images,
this must be a spot sacred to Achelous and the Nymphs. How delightful is
the breeze:--so very sweet; and there is a sound in the air shrill and
summerlike which makes answer to the chorus of the cicadae. But the
greatest charm of all is the grass, like a pillow gently sloping to the
head. My dear Phaedrus, you have been an admirable guide.

PHAEDRUS: What an incomprehensible being you are, Socrates: when you are
in the country, as you say, you really are like some stranger who is led
about by a guide. Do you ever cross the border? I rather think that you
never venture even outside the gates.

SOCRATES: Very true, my good friend; and I hope that you will excuse me
when you hear the reason, which is, that I am a lover of knowledge, and
the men who dwell in the city are my teachers, and not the trees or the
country. Though I do indeed believe that you have found a spell with
which to draw me out of the city into the country, like a hungry cow
before whom a bough or a bunch of fruit is waved. For only hold up
before me in like manner a book, and you may lead me all round Attica,
and over the wide world. And now having arrived, I intend to lie down,
and do you choose any posture in which you can read best. Begin.

PHAEDRUS: Listen. You know how matters stand with me; and how, as I
conceive, this affair may be arranged for the advantage of both of us.
And I maintain that I ought not to fail in my suit, because I am not
your lover: for lovers repent of the kindnesses which they have shown
when their passion ceases, but to the non-lovers who are free and not
under any compulsion, no time of repentance ever comes; for they confer
their benefits according to the measure of their ability, in the way
which is most conducive to their own interest. Then again, lovers
consider how by reason of their love they have neglected their own
concerns and rendered service to others: and when to these benefits
conferred they add on the troubles which they have endured, they think
that they have long ago made to the be