rises to a true sublimity, and sometimes falls into an ungraceful redundancy of words and of ill-suited figures ungraceful and obscure. 1 There is a good analysis of the Phædrus by Mr. Abbé Sallier, wherein he shews its true subject and intention. It is upon eloquence and is designed to demonstrate, that no writer, whether legislator, orator, historian, or poet, can do any thing excellent without a 1 Mémoires de l'Académie des Inscriptions, &c. V. 9, p. 49. See also another analysis by Mr. Hardion in his tenth Dissertation on the eloquence of Greece. Ib. V. 16, p. 378, des Mémoires. NOTES. P. 227. Tov OλvμTIOν.] The vast temple of Jupiter, begun by Pisistratus, but never finished till the time of the emperor Hadrian. Ib. IIρoonkovσa ye σo.] Socrates professed the art of love. See Xenoph. Sympos. Ib. IIрeσßUTEρw.] He was then threescore and upwards. Ib. Κατα Ηρόδικον.] Herodicus of Selymbria, ὁ παιδοτρίβης. See Plat. Protagoras, p. 316. There was also Herodicus, the Leontine, a physician, and brother to the famous Gorgias (See Plat. Gorg. 448 and 456.): the first was also a physician, and the first who regulated the exercises of youth by the rules of medicine. See de Republicâ, L. 3, p. 406, fusè. 228. Е0ρUTTEто.] He played the coquet; he denied, only to be courted to do what he wished. Ib. Αυτου δεηθητι, όπερ ταχα παντως ποιησει.] Read, ποιηση, and make no other correction: i.e. “Be now intreated to do, what you will do presently without any intreaty at all." 229. Της Αγραιας.] The district, or δημος, was called Αγραι, in which stood the temple of Diana Ayporepa. Pausanias, Attic. L. 1, p. 45. ed. Kuhnii. Ib. Zvv Papμakela.] Orithyia and Procris were the daughters of Erectheus. Who Pharmacéa was, I do not find. Ib. Acav de deivov.] Such disquisitions were the common employments of the sophists and grammarians. foundation of philosophy. The title prefixed to it, Пept Kaλoû, cannot be genuine; it has no other relation to it, than that beauty is accidentally the theme of Socrates's second little oration, which is contained in this dialogue; not that it is, directly, even the subject of that, for the tendency of it is to prove, Ὡς εραστῇ μαλλον, η τω μη ερῶντι δει χαριζεσθαι, as the two preceding orations were to shew the contrary. These are what Laertius calls NOTES. P. 230. Typhon or Typhoeus, the youngest son of Earth and Tartarus. Hesiod, Theogon. v. 821. has given a fine description of this portentous form. Ib. Axeλwov.] The Achelöus was looked upon in Greece as the principal of all rivers, and his name was used for all fresh water in general: he was usually worshipped in common with Pan and the Nymphs, as here. Ib. Καρπον προσιόντες.] Read προσείοντες, shaking it before them. 231. v deoμai.] What he desired, will appear but too plainly in the course of these little orations, and must appear a most strange subject of conversation for Socrates, to all who are unacquainted with the manners of Greece. The President de Montesquieu has observed, but too justly, on the nature of their love and gallantry. Esprit des Loix, V. 1. See also Xenoph. Economic. and Symposium; and the Symposium of Plato; see also de Legib. L. 1. p. 636. Ib. Tov voμov.] There were, indeed, laws of great severity in Athens against this vice; but who should put them in force in such general and shocking depravity? 234. This praise he cannot help bestowing on Lysias's composition, namely, Ότι σαφη, και στρογγυλα, και ακριβως έκαστα των ονοματων αποτετορνευται. 235. Noteρ o evvea.] The Archons took an oath to do this, if they were guilty of corruption, before they took their seats in the Στοα Βασιλειος. See Jul. Pollux, L. 8, c. 13. Plutarch in Solon; and Heraclides in Politiis. Προβλήματα μειρακιώδη, though he may mean it of the whole dialogue, which is something juvenile and full of vanity. Dionysius very justly says, Hv yap ev μev in Πλατωνος φυσει, πολλας αρετας εχουσῃ, το φιλοτιμον, and before, Πλατων το φορτικωτατον και επαχ θεστατον των εργων προελόμενος, αὑτον επαινειν κατα την δυναμιν των λογων, &c. The Socratick Dialogues are a kind of dramas, wherein the time, the place, and the characters are NOTES. Ρ. 235. Παρα γε εμαυτού ουδεν.] It is observable, that Socrates, whenever he would discourse affirmatively on any subject, or when he thought proper to raise and adorn his style, does it not in his own person, but assumes the character of another. Thus, for instance, he relates the beautiful fable between Virtue and Pleasure after Prodicus; he treats of the miseries of human life in the words of the same sophist; he describes the state of souls after death from the information of Gobryas, one of the Magi; he makes a panegyrick on wine in the style of Gorgias; and here he does not venture to display his eloquence, till the Nymphs and the Muses have inspired him. This is consistent with that character of simplicity and of humility which he assumed. 236. Kuyeλidwv.] See Pausanias, L. 5, p. 378. Ib. 'Opolas λaßas.] A metaphor taken from wrestling: you give me a good hold of you. So in Lib. de Republ. 8, p. 544. Παλιν τοινυν, ὥσπερ παλαιστης, την αυτην λαβην παρεχε. Ib. Twv Kwuwdwv.] The repetition of a person's words by way of reproach. Ib. Ioinтnv.] Used for one who composes any thing, whether prose or verse. So above, p. 234. Ως τα δεοντα ειρηκότος του Ποιητοῦ.—Ομνυμι γαρ σοι : what follows should be written thus, Τινα μεντοι ; τινα θεων ; ει βουλει, την πλατανην ταυτηνι. 237. Ayete dŋ, w Movσal.] Thus far, says Dionysius, πavтα χαριτων μεστα : hence begins a style more turbid and obscure, and disagreeably poetical. almost as exactly marked as in a true theatrical representation. Phædrus here is a young man particularly sensible 1 to eloquence and to fine writing, and thence a follower and an admirer of the famous Lysias, whose 1 V. p. 242, et passim. He was an Athenian, son to Pythocles, of the district of Myrrhinus, and tribe Pandionis. V. the Sympos. p. 176. NOTES. Ρ. 237. Κρατουσης τω κρατει, σωφροσυνη ονομα.] Write thus, Κρατούσης, τω κρατει σωφροσυνη ονομα, which answers to και αρξασης εν ήμιν, τη αρχη ύβρις επωνομάσθη. 238. IIαlos TETOV@eval.] The word, which Serranus would insert here, (Oelov) Talos, is not in Dionysius. Ib. Eupola.] An easy fluency and volubility of expression. So Diogenes Laertius in Timone Phliasio, Lib. 9, c. 114. AXλa και ευρους, ὡς μηδε αριστᾶν συγχωρειν : i.e. he wrote with that ease and fluency, that he could not find time to dine; that is, he found no interval, no interruption in the course of his writing, to bestow on the necessities of nature: though, perhaps, the true reading is, is unde apɩoтois, so as to vie with the best. I mention this passage, because Meric Casaubon was wise enough to understand cupous of a looseness, to which Timon was subject, and distinguishes very accurately between cupola and diappola. D. Laert. L. 9, c. 114. 241. Οστρακου μεταπεσοντος.] A proverb, taken from a play in use among children, called Оσтpakivda, described by Jul. Pollux, L. 9, c. 154, ed. Jungermanni, and by Eustathius. They were divided into two parties, which fled or pursued each other alternately, as the chance of a piece of broken potsherd, thrown up into the air, determined it: the boy who threw it cried out Nu 'Huepa; if the black (or pitched) side came uppermost, his party ran away, and the other gave them chase; if the white one, the others ran, and they pursued them. Hence Οστρακου Περιστροφη was used to describe a total reverse of fortune. Erasmus, in his Adagia, has not explained it well. See Plato de Republ. L. 7, p. 521. reputation was then at its height in Athens. He has sat the greatest part of the morning at the house of Epicrates, near the Olympium, to hear Lysias recite a discourse; and, having procured a copy of it, is meditating upon it with pleasure, as he walks without the city walls, where Socrates meets him. To avoid the heat of the day they retire to the shade of an ancient plane-tree, that overshadows a fane of Achelòus and the nymphs on the banks of a rivulet, which discharges NOTES. 242. Zippar Onẞaîov.] See Diog. Laertius, L. 2, c. 124. He is mentioned in the thirteenth Epistle, and is an interlocutor in the Phædo. Ib. Ου πολεμον γε αγγελλεις.] These words belong to Phædrus, as H. Stephens observes. It is a proverb: you are the messenger of no bad news. See De Legibus, L. 3, p. 702. Ib. Εδυσωπουμην.] Α fragment of Ibycus: Μη τι παρα Θεοις αμπλακων, τιμαν προς ανθρωπων αμειψω. 243. The beginning of a Palinodia of Stesichorus on Helen. Ουκ εστ' ετυμος ὁ λογος οὗτος, Ουδ' εβας εν νηυσιν εὔσσελμοις, Ουδ' ίκεο Περγαμα Τροιας, which is alluded to at the end of the third Epistle, την παλινωδιαν αυτου μιμησάμενος. Plat. V. 3, p. 319. 244. Δια τε ορνιθων ποιουμένην, and afterwards ποριζομενην, as H. Steph. corrects it. Ib. Οιονοηστικην.] He derives it from otos and vous, as attained by human experience alone. A very bad etymology. Ib. Egavrn.] Serranus translates, indemnem, incolumem, i.e. placed aloft, as it were, out of the reach of danger and envy. See Constantini Lexicon. 246. 'H νxη aσα.] This is, indeed, an example of those Αλληγορίαι μακραι, ουτε μετρον εχουσαι, ουτε καιρον, of which Dionysius Halicarnassensis complains in Plato; (Dion. Halic. Vol. 2, p. 272, ed. Oxon.); and which, indeed, Plato himself calls in this very Dialogue (p. 265) a μvlíkos vμvos. Ib. Αθανατον τι ζωον.] He defines God so, εχον μεν ψυχην, εχον δε σωμα. |