_Socr._ It has escaped your notice, Phædrus, that the proverb “a sweet bend” is derived from that long bend in the Nile: and as well as the bend, it escapes your notice, that these public men who think most highly of themselves are most fond of writing speeches, and of leaving their compositions behind them; and moreover, whenever they write a speech, they so love its supporters, that they prefix their names who on each occasion commend them. 87. _Phæ._ How do you mean? for I don’t understand you. _Socr._ Don’t you understand, that at the beginning of a statesman’s writing, the name of its supporter is written first. _Phæ._ How? _Socr._ “Approved,” I think the writing itself says, “by the council, or the people, or both,” and he who proposed it, speaking very pompously of and extolling himself, namely the composer, after this makes a speech so as to display his own wisdom to his supporters, sometimes making a very long composition. Does this appear to you to be any thing else than a written speech? _Phæ._ It does not to me. 88. _Socr._ If, then, it happens to be approved, the composer goes home from the theatre delighted. But if it should be rubbed out, and he debarred from writing speeches, and from the dignity of an author, both he and his friends take it greatly to heart. _Phæ._ Just so. _Socr._ It is clear, then, that they do not despise this practice, but admire it exceedingly. _Phæ._ Certainly. _Socr._ What then, when an orator or a king has proved himself competent to assume the power of a Lycurgus, or a Solon, or a Darius, and to become immortal as a speech-writer in a state, does he not deem himself godlike, while he is yet alive, and do not posterity think the very same of his writings? _Phæ._ Just so. 89. _Socr._ Do you think then that any person of this sort, however ill-disposed he may be towards Lysias, would upbraid him merely because he is a writer? _Phæ._ It does not seem probable from what you say; for in that case, as it appears, he would upbraid his own passion. _Socr._ This, then, must be clear to every one, that the mere writing of speeches is not disgraceful. _Phæ._ Why should it be? _Socr._ But this I think now is disgraceful, not to express and write them well, but shamefully and ill. _Phæ._ Clearly so. _Socr._ What then is the method of writing well or ill? Have we not occasion, Phædrus, to enquire about this from Lysias or some one else, who has at some time or other written or means to write, either a political or private composition, in metre as a poet, or without metre as a prose-writer? _Phæ._ Do you ask, if we have occasion? For what purpose in the world should any one live, but for the sake of pleasures of this kind? Not, surely, for those which cannot even be enjoyed unless they are preceded by pain, which is the case with nearly all the pleasures connected with the body; on which account they are justly called servile.