proposes that instead of drinking and listening to the flute-girl's music—("she may play to herself," says the doctor, considerately, "or to the women inside, if she prefers it")—they shall pass a sober evening, and that each of the guests in turn shall make a speech in praise of Love—hitherto a much-neglected deity. This prudent proposal is readily accepted by the company, many of whom have hardly recovered from the effects of the last night's carouse.
Phædrus accordingly begins, in a high-flown poetic style, and praises Love as being the best and oldest of the gods, and the source of happiness in life and death. It is Love (he says) that inspires such heroism as that of Alcestis, who died to save her husband's life,—unlike that "cowardly harper" Orpheus, who went alive to Hades after his wife, and was justly punished afterwards for his impertinence. Love, again—passing that of women—inspired Achilles, who "foremost fighting fell" to avenge his friend Patroclus, and was carried after death to the islands of the blest.
Pausanias follows in the same vein, but distinguishes between the ignoble and fleeting love of the body and the pure and lasting love of the soul.
Aristophanes should properly have spoken next, "but either he had eaten too much, or from some other cause he had the hiccough." The doctor recommends him to drink some water, or, if that fails, to "tickle his nose and sneeze;" meanwhile he delivers his own speech—from a medical point of view—and shows how Love, like a good and great physician, reconciles
