Symposium

ones that are their own are base. For it is not their own, I think, that each welcomes, unless one calls the good akin and his own, and the bad alien; since there is nothing else that 206a human beings are in love with than the good. Or do they seem so to you?’

“‘By Zeus, not to me,’ I said.

“‘Then is it so simple,’ she said, ‘to say that human beings are in love with the good?’

“‘Yes,’ I said.

“‘What then? Must it not be added,’ she said, ‘that they are in love with the good’s being theirs?’

“‘It must be added.’

“‘Then,’ she said, ‘not only its being theirs, but its being theirs always?’

“‘This too must be added.’

“‘So, taken all together,’ she said, ‘love is of the good’s being one’s own always.’

“‘Most true,’ I said, ‘is what you say.’

206b“‘Since love is always this,’ she said, ‘in those who pursue it in what way, and in what action, would their earnestness and exertion be called love? What is this work, in fact? Can you tell?’

“‘Then I would not be marvelling at you for your wisdom, Diotima,’ I said, ‘and coming to you to learn these very things.’

“‘Well, I shall tell you,’ she said. ‘It is giving birth in what is beautiful, both in body and in soul.’

“‘It needs prophecy,’ I said, ‘whatever you mean, and I do not understand.’

206c“‘Well, I shall speak more clearly,’ she said. ‘For all human beings, Socrates,’ she said, ’are pregnant both in body and in