[158] This is a remark of Diotima's. Maximus Tyrius (Dissert., xxvi. 8) gives it a very rational interpretation. Nowhere else, he says, but in the human form, does the light of the divine beauty shine so clear. This is the word of classic art, the word of the humanities, to use a phrase of the Renaissance. It finds an echo in many beautiful sonnets of Michelangelo.
[159] See Bergk., vol. ii. pp. 616-629, for a critique of the canon of the highly paiderastic epigrams which bear Plato's name and for their text.
[160] I select the Vita Nuova as the most eminent example of mediæval erotic mysticism.
[161] Tusc., iv. 33; Decline and Fall, cap. xliv. note 192.
[162] See Meier, cap. 15.
[163] Cap. 23.
[164] Cap. 54.
[165] Page 4.
[166] It is noticeable that in all ages men of learning have been obnoxious to paiderastic passions. Dante says (Inferno, xv. 106):—
"In somma sappi, che tutti fur cherci,
E letterati grandi e di gran fama,
D'un medesmo poccato al mondo lerci."
Compare Ariosto, Satire, vii.