263–264
Phaedrus
Phaedrus. If you like; but what you seek is not in it.
Socrates
Socrates. Read, that I may hear Lysias himself.
Phaedrus
Phaedrus. You know what my condition is, and you have heard how I think it is to our advantage to arrange these matters. And I claim that I ought not to be refused what I ask because I am not your lover. For lovers repent of the kindnesses they have done when their passion ceases.
Socrates
Socrates. He certainly does not at all seem to do what we demand, for he does not even begin at the beginning, but undertakes to swim on his back up the current of his discourse from its end, and begins with what the lover would say at the end to his beloved. Am I not right, Phaedrus my dear?
Phaedrus
Phaedrus. Certainly that of which he speaks is an ending.
Socrates
Socrates. And how about the rest? Don’t you think the parts of the discourse are thrown out helter-skelter? Or does it seem to you that the second topic had to be put second for any cogent reason, or that any of the other things he says are so placed? It seemed to me, who am wholly ignorant, that the writer uttered boldly whatever occurred to him. Do you know any rhetorical reason why he arranged his topics in this order?
Phaedrus
Phaedrus. You flatter me in thinking that I can discern his motives so accurately.
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