THE SUPPER
THE translators are to be congratulated on this delightful rendering of Plato's Symposium. It reads easily and music- ally, without the usual twists and contortions with which we are painfully familiar in translations. The translators have called it the " Supper " ; and that is a very happy idea. since it suggests the later and more tragically set Supper, at which the same spirit of Love presided. For all of us no it is hard to realize fully how great was the originality of Nato's mind. We forget that the three outstanding revival of interest in his work occurred at the three most formative periods in the evolution of the European system of ethics. We may say that the influence of Plato on our spiritual, or relig- ious ; on our logical, or philosophical ; and on our mundane, or political, activities is that of a parent. He is, therefore, so familiar that we cannot see him, just as we cannot see those of our own blood, with appreciative eyes.
Were I some student of philosophy living in the later Roman Empire, and devoting myself with awe and passion to the mystical influences creeping in from Ionian sources ; and had it been my fate to meet with the new Christian gospels ; and had I been directed to express their effect on my suscept- ible mind, I should have felt as I feel now, confronted with Plato's superb attempt to define Love.
This is the book that has originated the idea of " Platonic Love," which, in common with the conception of Love subsequently evolved by Christ, has ever since been fraudulently usei by the materialists, who snatch as greedily at the flowers of the mind as they do at the fruits of the earth.
The glib phrase, "PlatonicLove," slips easily from the tongues .of the sentimental—but here is hardly the occasion to recall the fleshly indulgences committed in the name of the soul.
The necessary thing is to remind ourselves of the real nature of Plato's vision of Love ; for that reality is the very opposite of what is sentimental and indulgent. Yet it involves no premature asceticism, such as marred so much of the later manifestations of the Christian ideal. Plato welcomed all experience. So much of him was the aesthete, and so much of him was the logician. Both of these characters are assim- ilators. As such they can never renounce. There comes a stage in their development when their conduct is identical with that of the self-scourger ; but if we analyze the motives of all three, we find the first two to be actuated by aspiration in love, and the last one by aspiration in fear. All that is common, then, is the aspiration ; and that is but an awareness which, being inert, has no virtue. Where the truly religious, the adventurous mind attacks experience, and, choosing the true and permanent, rejects the false and temporary ; the sham-religious or conventional mind lacks the vitality to touch the good for fear of the proximate evil. It is a case of angels entering where fools fear to tread.
This courage is the fundamental quality of Plato, on the basis of which he rears the giant structure of his knowledge.
He himself is conscious of the necessity for that fearlessness, for he has a hard thing to say of the half-hearted, who aspire but dare not move. He says, " orthodoxy is the halfway condition between ignorance and knowledge." It is a merci- . ess criticism of those pious but anaemic souls who are afraid of new things ; who cling to the already proven, to the estab- lished law ; who dare not " warm both hands before the fire of life." The tragic paradox is that these souls try to shelter under the wings of the onward-striding, austere beings, such as Christ and Plato, whom unwittingly they thwart and deny.
In our contemplation of the growth of the religious idea it is inevitable that Plato and Christ should be thought of together, the one preparing the way for the other. In the " Supper " we find most patently a foreshadowing expressed of the ideas which were later to be in the Christian faith. Christ's emphasis on the importance of charity is made more comprehensible to the reason and more powerful as an inspiration in life when we study in the " Supper " Plato's definition of the highest expression of the spirit of Love. We see the logical necessity of tolerance ; and there- fore the mind as well as the subconscious self is persuaded to this idea, so that the world may be not only embraced by charity ; it may also be understood through charity.
It is, alas! a hard thing to learn, this truth taught by both Masters—that we must transcend our personal emotions. How many of us are there who can read, without a tremor of fear, the words, " Woman, what have I to do with thee ? "
spoken by Christ to His mother ? But we must not be cowardly and evade this saying, for it is the manifestation of His bit- terly-won detachment. Here it is logically expressed by Plato :- " Then he must realize that Beauty in one person is akin to Beauty in another, and that, if he must pursue visible Beauty, it is sheer folly not to understand that the Beauty in all persons is one and the same. When he has grasped this, he must relax his zeal for one and become the lover of all beautiful persons, con- temning the devotion to one and deeming it of little worth. Right progress consists in beginning with the love of beautiful things and continuously ascending, as though by steps, for the sake of Beauty itself, from one beautiful body to two, and from two to all, andfrom beautiful bodies to beautiful Morals, and from beautiful Morals to beautiful Sciences, and from the Sciences finally to that Science which is nothing less than the Science of pure Beauty, wherein the true essence of Beauty is learned."
Ah, this cruelty in kindness of the divine ones ! What a lifetime of striving, and failing, and striving again must we pass through before we can appreciate their severe wisdom I How many of us are great enough lovers that Plato's words could be said of us, " For if their own feet or hands offend them they are even willing to cut them off " ? Perhaps we should turn from this merciless poet-philosopher for a' milder dispessition to the One who replies in parables. His con- solation will be, " If thy right hand offend thee, cut it 'off."
RICHARD CHURCH.
Previous page
