CHAPTER XX.

LYSIS.

Analogy between Lysis and Charmides. Richness of dramatic incident in both. Youthful beauty 172

Scenery and personages of the Lysis _ib._

Origin of the conversation. Sokrates promises to give an example of the proper way of talking to a youth, for his benefit 173

Conversation of Sokrates with Lysis _ib._

Lysis is humiliated. Distress of Hippothalês 177

Lysis entreats Sokrates to talk in the like strain to Menexenus _ib._

Value of the first conversation between Sokrates and Lysis, as an illustration of the Platonico-Sokratic manner 177

Sokrates begins to examine Menexenus respecting friendship. Who is to be called a friend? Halt in the dialogue 178

Questions addressed to Lysis. Appeal to the maxims of the poets. Like is the friend of like. Canvassed and rejected _ib._

Other poets declare that likeness is a cause of aversion; unlikeness, of friendship. Reasons _pro_ and _con_. Rejected 179

Confusion of Sokrates. He suggests, That the Indifferent (neither good nor evil) is friend to the Good 180

Suggestion canvassed. If the Indifferent is friend to the Good, it is determined to become so by the contact of felt evil, from which it is anxious to escape 180

Principle illustrated by the philosopher. His intermediate condition--not wise, yet painfully feeling his own ignorance 181

Sokrates dissatisfied. He originates a new suggestion. The Primum Amabile, or object originally dear to us, _per se_: by relation or resemblance to which other objects become dear _ib._

The cause of love is desire. We desire that which is akin to us or our own 182

Good is of a nature akin to every one, evil is alien to every one. Inconsistency with what has been previously laid down 183

Failure of the enquiry. Close of the dialogue 184

Remarks. No positive result. Sokratic purpose in analysing the familiar words--to expose the false persuasion of knowledge _ib._

Subject of Lysis. Suited for a Dialogue of Search. Manner of Sokrates, multiplying defective explanations, and showing reasons why each is defective 185

The process of trial and error is better illustrated by a search without result than with result. Usefulness of the dialogue for self-working minds 186

Subject of friendship, handled both by the Xenophontic Sokrates, and by Aristotle _ib._

Debate in the Lysis partly verbal, partly real. Assumptions made by the Platonic Sokrates, questionable, such as the real Sokrates would have found reason for challenging 188

Peculiar theory about friendship broached by Sokrates. Persons neither good nor evil by nature, yet having a superficial tinge of evil, and desiring good to escape from it 189

This general theory illustrated by the case of the philosopher or lover of wisdom. Painful consciousness of ignorance the attribute of the philosopher. Value set by Sokrates and Plato upon this attribute 190

Another theory of Sokrates. The Primum Amabile, or original and primary object of Love. Particular objects are loved through association with this. The object is Good 191

Statement by Plato of the general law of mental association _ib._

Theory of the Primum Amabile, here introduced by Sokrates, with numerous derivative objects of love. Platonic Idea. Generic communion of Aristotle, distinguished by him from the feebler analogical communion 192

Primum Amabile of Plato, compared with the Prima Amicitia of Aristotle. Each of them is head of an analogical aggregate, not member of a generic family 194

The Good and Beautiful, considered as objects of attachment _ib._