Mr. Jowett's version of this dialogue is fully as lax as that of the _Symposium_. Still it reads pleasantly, and if one could forget the incomparable and often so much more expressive Greek, one would be fairly content with the general correctness of the paraphrase. Almost at the outset, he renders εἴ σοι σχολὴ προϊόντι ἀκούειν, 'if you have leisure to _stay and listen_,' instead of 'to _walk on_ and listen,' where a slight satire is intended on the 'constitutional' and prescribed exercise of the effeminate youth. And γέγραφε γὰρ δὴ ὁ Λυσίας πειρώμενόν τινα τῶν καλῶν, οὐχ ὑπ' ἐραστοῦ δὲ, ἀλλ' αὐτὸ τοῦτο καὶ κεκόμψευται means, 'Lysias, you must know, has written about one of the handsome youths having proposals made to him, not, however, by a lover; but this is the very point he has put in a new and quaint light.' (Of course, κεκόμψευται, to which we have given a medial sense, may also be taken as a passive.) Mr. Jowett gives us nothing nearer to the above than 'Lysias _imagined_ a fair youth who was being tempted, but not by a lover; and this was the point; he ingeniously proved that,' &c. In p. 229, A., κατὰ τὸν Ἰλισσὸν ἴωμεν should be rendered, 'let us go _along_ or _down_ the Ilissus,' _i.e._, in the bed or channel, or even along the bank; certainly not, 'let us go _to_ the Ilissus.' Nor is ἀγροίκῳ τινὶ σοφίᾳ (p. 329, _fin._), this sort of '_crude_ philosophy,' but 'an uncourteous (or uncivil) kind of philosophy,' viz., that which employs itself in giving the lie to received traditions. The charming and justly celebrated passage in p. 230, B.--one of the few in Greek literature that indicate intense feeling for the beauties of nature--we propose to render as follows, nearly every word being a _close_ representative of the equivalent Greek:-- 'Upon my word, the retreat is a charming one; for not only is this plane-tree of ample size and height, but the dense shade of this tall _agnus_ is quite beautiful to behold; in full flower too, so as to make the place most fragrant! Yon spring, also, is most grateful, that flows from under the plane-tree with a stream of very cold water, as one may judge by the feeling to the foot. Moreover, there appears, from the images and ornaments, to be a shrine here to certain Nymphs and to the Achelöus. Pray notice, also, the balmy air of the place, how delightful and exceeding sweet, and how it rings with the shrill summer chirp of the chorus of cicadas! But the quaintest thing of all is the growth of the grass, which on this gentle slope springs up in just enough abundance for one to recline one's head and be quite comfortable. So that you have proved a most excellent guide for a strange visitor, my dear Phædrus.' Some extra pains might have been fairly bestowed on a passage almost without rival in Greek literature. But Mr. Jowett gives us the following bare and clipped paraphrase of it:--